Iran Human Rights (IHRNGO); March 17, 2023: At least five men were executed for drug-related charges in the early hours of March 17 in Urmia Central Prison.
Iran Human Rights strongly condemns their executions and considers it to be a part of the Islamic Republic’s organised crime of mass execution of drug death row prisoners. It calls on Iran’s civil society and the international community to strongly condemn these crimes to prevent them further.
The life of Kurdish political prisoner, Mohiyedin Ebrahimi is still at serious risk. Iran Human Rights has repeatedly warned of his imminent execution.
According to information obtained by Iran Human Rights, at least five men were executed in Urmia Central Prison on March 17. Their identities have been established as Ashir Abbasnejad, Mohammad Ayoubian, Yasin Rashidi, Jahanbakhsh Radlouyi and Hassan Omari. They were all sentenced to death for drug-related charges by the Revolutionary Court.
At the time of writing, none of their executions were reported by domestic media or officials in Iran.
Yesterday, Iran Human Rights warned about the dramatic rise in drug-related executions. For the first time since the implementation of the Amendment to the 2017 Anti-Narcotics Laws, more than half of all executions are for drug-related charges.
In the period of 1 January-15 March, 4 people were executed for drug-related charges in 2020, 15 people in 2021 and 34 in 2022. This has risen to 88 in 2023.